The Civil Registration of marriages also began in March 1856. Where as the responsibility was on the parents for registering births, and the family and friends for registering deaths, it was not the case in the registration of marriages. Ministers of religion were licensed by the Registrar General of New South Wales to carry out marriages on behalf of the Crown. As well as filling in the church marriage register the clergy were also required to fill out a proscribed form, which they then sent off to the Registrar General's Office or to the District Registrar's Office. So for a marriage the clergy were responsible for registering same. Although there are a few instances of clergy losing marriage particulars through floods and fires, most marriages that took place were registered at the office of District Registrars, and then the Registrar General in Sydney.

If you cannot find a marriage entry in the Index of Marriages in one of the states it is most likely that the marriage didn't legally take place. Usually for the reason that one or both parties had previously married and although separated they were still not legally able to re-marry. You may be surprised how many of our ancestors risked being imprisoned by being involved in a bigamist marriage. This was particularly so if they were far away from where they had previously married, or they lived in a city and as the former marriage took place some years before they thought they were safe. Many bigamist were not found out, but there were also many who were, and the insuring court case presents great information for the family historian.

New South Wales was the last Australian colony to implement divorce legislation with the Matrimonial Causes Act in 1873. The background and further information to this can be found at the State Records of NSW-Archives in Brief 77-Divorce Records 1873-1923.

For various periods in the late 19^th Century the proscribed form the clergy had to send to the Registrar General's Office was very basic including, names of parties, ages and place of birth, place and date of the marriage, with attending consent declaration if necessary. If a marriage certificate has only basic information the family historian needs to follow up the pertinent church register. However be warned that due to floods and fires some registers have not survived.

If we now take a full marriage certificate and explain the entries column.

The first thing you will notice that the whole certificate is written in the same hand. This is of a clerk working in the Register General's Office in 1913. The signatures of the wedding parties will not be found on this document. However, you may find the original church marriage register may have been signed by the marriage partners at the time of the marriage and also the witnesses to the marriage.

 Here follows some explanations of each of the columns on this marriage certificate.

Column 1 No 240 Entry number 240 at the Registrar General's Office for 1913

Column 2 Date and Place of Marriage- 1913, 27 January, Thirroul, Bulli Shire

Column 3 Names and surnames of parties- Arthur Baxter and Harriet May Bell

 Column 4 Usual occupation- Dairy Farmer is given for Arthur Baxter and ------- for Harriet May Bell, which would infer she didn't go outside the home to earn money and probably lived at home under the care of her father.

Column 5 Usual place of residence- Arthur Baxter lived at Picton NSW and Harriet May Bell lived at Thirroul, NSW.

The marriage took place at St David's, Church of England, Thirroul.

As the consent section of the certificate has been ruled through, this would infer that both parties to the marriage were of 'full age', of 21 years or above.

Column 6 Conjugal status- we note that Arthur Baxter is described as a Bachelor and Harriet May Bell was a Spinster. This column should show if the parties were a Widower or Widow, although it has been known for the parties to describe themselves as a Bachelor and Spinster, meaning they were in a 'single state and free to marry', when the Widower and/or Widow term actually applied.

Column 7 Birthplace- The birthplace of Picton, N S Wales is given for both parties. They are likely to have known each other for perhaps a number of years.

Column 8 Age- is stated as 24 and 22 years respectively. This will give a starting place to look for the births of the parties at Picton.

Column 9 Father's name, mother's name and maiden name- James Baxter and Margaret Jane Kennedy were the parents of Arthur Baxter and John Bell and Alice Sherwood were the parents of Harriet May Bell. This column is very important as it gives the clues to move back to the previous generation for both parties and having the name of the parents we can seek information on their marriage date and place, and then consequently other children to that marriage. This will then help to give siblings of the marriage partners of this certificate.

Column 10 Fathers occupation-Dairy Farmer for Arthur Baxter and Blacksmith for Harriet May Bell. The occupation of the fathers can lead to the entries in trade and post office directories among other records. This can become an important identifying point of persons of the same name who are living in a place at the same time.

In the bottom half of this certificate we can see that although this is not the actual signatures, there is the inference that they signed the original church register. If they were not able to sign their name an X would have represented their mark. There is an inference they were likely to have had some education. Also note the names of the witnesses. As they have the same surnames as the groom and bride they are likely to be family members, perhaps siblings.

The Church of England minister was Philip W(illia)m Dowe who registered the marriage with the District Registrar L J Ramsay on 30 January 1913. Remember Thirroul may not have been the place of registration if the District Registrar was not stationed there.(In fact in this case it was Woonona, a town south of Thirroul.)

The parties to be married gave the information under oath so we believe that the information is likely to be correct in this case. However on occasions on some marriage certificates the parents of the bride and groom may consequently prove to be incorrect or even wholly fictitious. It may be incorrect because the party was not aware that the person they knew as mother or father was in fact a step-parent and so they have recorded them as their parent. There may be a fictitious father because the party is illegitimate. They may or may not be aware of this fact and give a name they always believed to be their father. Sometimes the party may be an orphan, who emigrated young and has no knowledge of parentage and 'invents' parents names to save embarrassment. Note that the marriage certificate from the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the church marriage register and any marriage certificate handed to the couple on the day of the marriage, which may be in 'family archives' will have the same information, as the source of the information is the same. You will need to collect information from other documents if the parties' parentage proves to be difficult to establish.